EL PAÍS offers the América Futura section openly for its daily and global information contribution on sustainable development. If you want to support our journalism, subscribe here.
We are at a key moment of review of the global narrative on climate change and biodiversity. For decades, the international debate has been focused on the reduction of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and, especially, on the transformation of production models and the energy transition. This has somewhat left aside crucial issues such as deforestation, the rampant loss of large forest masses (which are the natural carbon sink) or the preservation of biodiversity.
The strong emergence of these latter issues in international negotiations, mainly with the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015, reflects the need to radically review the climate leadership model and place the countries of the so-called Global South at the center of the conversations.
And, in this context, the Latin American and Caribbean perspective is essential, both for the socioeconomic and environmental future of the region and for the sustainability of the planet. It is now that Latin America and the Caribbean must reinforce its narrative and enhance its role as a region of solutions and this requires an effort of coordination and union of wills that must prevail over differences.
Solutions to the energy transition, demanding reasonable deadlines and a fair transition, and approaching with extreme caution its position as a supplier of critical minerals for electrification, such as lithium and copper. Solutions to food security problems, which require a more productive and sustainable agricultural sector, which does not generate deforestation, but which is not blamed without taking into account the impacts of climate change on small producers, who are the majority in the region . Solutions to climate change through its strategic ecosystems, including marine-coastal and oceanic ecosystems, which provide services that go far beyond carbon capture, to become sources of incalculable value for local communities and for the planet, and that normally do not receive the necessary recognition, leading to their loss and destruction.
Latin America and the Caribbean must promote a new global debate on environmental matters that, without abandoning the challenge of GHG mitigation, allows for a much more focused approach on the solutions and needs provided at the local level. A report from CAF – development bank of Latin America and the Caribbean – from 2023 precisely emphasizes the need to always focus on the impact on the most vulnerable communities and to listen to the voice of those affected by climate change and the loss of biodiversity .
In this sense, it is of special relevance that in 2024 the Conference of the Parties to the Biodiversity Convention and the presidency of the G-20 will fall to two Latin American countries, Colombia and Brazil respectively, which are the countries with the greatest biodiversity, and which, in addition , in 2025 the thirtieth Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention will also take place in Brazil. Likewise, the prominence acquired by the Caribbean countries in the debate on the reform of the international financial architecture with initiatives such as Bridgetown, promoted by Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados, demanding a solution to the fiscal problems that prevent facing the climate disasters, is a fundamental element in this repositioning that we are witnessing and that will involve a review of geopolitical balances in the medium term.
This change in focus represents a giant step, still incipient, that is not free of tensions, since it means that countries rich in biodiversity, critical minerals and solutions to the problems of climate change legitimately demand a greater role in the international decision-making processes.
CAF, as a green bank, is contributing to this new positioning of the region, decisively supporting the calls in Colombia and Brazil, giving visibility to the actions undertaken in alliance with multiple organizations, in strategic ecosystems such as the Amazon, Patagonia, the Caribbean, the paramos, the mangroves, the Chocó Biogeographic, the region of upwelling of the Humboldt current, among others, with the aim of emphasizing its transnational character and becoming the platform where the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean can speak and make yourself heard.
Our proposal recognizes the social, political and budgetary challenges of the countries and seeks to build joint solutions in a gradual context of just transition; considers the climate action and biodiversity agendas to be complementary and inseparable; considers adaptation as an absolute priority because the frequency and intensity of the impacts of climate change generate leaks of unsustainable resources; wishes, through an ecosystem approach, to reverse development models based on economic growth, which do not take into account high-cost externalities associated with pollution, depletion of natural resources and health; involves local communities, paying special attention to indigenous and Afro-descendant communities whose role in the conservation of ecosystems is essential; and is committed to being an ally of the region to strengthen its presence in the global debate on the climate and biodiversity crisis, providing its own perspectives and innovative solutions.
#climate #narratives #Latin #America #Caribbean
